Star Trek: Rising of Demons
by Damar
Summary: A decade after the ending of the Dominion War, the newly founded Cardassian Republic must battle unexpected while the Federation and it's allies are away.


I do not own Star Trek, in hopes that Paramount won't lay the smack on me down. Cardassians are my number one favourite species in all of Scifi, and this little story will add to their reputation...i hope.

**Prologue**

**Soukara, Cardassian Union, 2375**

The meeting that was about to take place was the most important one in Cardassian history. The decisions that were about to be made would forever decide the future of Cardassia and the entire Alpha Quadrant. One for one, people were beamed into the underground chamber, two-hundred feet below the surface and only accesible by transporter. It made sure that only the people who were invited were allowed to the meeting and keeping away unfriendly eyes. The chamber was empty, dark and without decoration, the only furniture was a long black metal table, with two chairs on each side, and a fifth at the head of the table and the only piece of technology was a transporter booth along with a console to operate it.

The room was now currently occupied by three Cardassian males, all were above the age of forty, and all but one were dressed in the feared and hated black uniform of the Cardassian military. The third was dressed in simple civillian clothing, wich was none the less made out of very expensive material.

"Where is he? Doesn't that young brat know that we are risking our lives attending to this meeting?"

The question was made by the eldest among them. The old Cardassian had grown fat and his hair was all grey, and had the rank of legate on his uniform.

"Patience, Yorel. He has a lot to prepare for the coming days and it has to be prepared well, if he were to survive the coming days." The legate had been answered by the only civillian present, who was a few years younger than Yorel and his hair was only grey at the sides.

"But isn't this far more important than that weak atack on Rondack III?" The youngest of them all said. The Cardassian was the other one in the usual Cardassian uniform, but with the rank of Gul written on it instead. "If the Dominion ever knew what is going to be discussed here today, they wouldn't hesitate to wipe us all out!"

"That's why i took some precautions"

A loud and familair voice behind them said. The three men turned around and saw a tall young Cardassian standing on the transporter booth with a phaser in his left hand and wearing the same uniform as Yorel, but with some extra decoration to seperate him from the rest of the legates. His face was known throughout the quadrant as a leader of a proud nation, ally of a powerful and unreleting race known as the Dominion and as the enemy of the Federation-Klingon-Romulan Alliance.

He was Corat Damar, leader of the Cardassian Union and was currently holding a phaser aimed at the table, and than finally pressed the trigger. A yellow beam left the forward tip of the phaser and hit Legate Yorel right in the chest. And when the beam hit the old Cardassian, the other two expected him to either go uncousinous or drop dead, but the Cardassian didn't do one of these things. He exploded, in a cloud of small drops of Changeling remains.

The remaining military Cardassian almost stumbled from his chair, while the civillian had a suprised but amused look on his face. They looked as the small drops stopped moving and turned into dust.

"By Tarlac's Eye! Yorel was a shape-shifter!"

"Yes, i suspected as much" Damar answered " But i wasn't sure until i saw a large Jem'hadar taskforce waiting in orbit, one minute after Yorel arrived."

" And if your suspcions were incorrect?." The civillian asked.

" Than Yorel would have died like a patriot, followed by the rest of you because than i'm not sure who the Changeling would be. There's too much at risk to let the Dominion spoil it."

The other two Cardassians nodded in agreement, because they would have done the same thing. Cardassia's future is more important than the lives of a few.

"Now, Gul Evek and Berim Ressil" Damar said as he began to look both Cardassians straight in the eye," We shall discuss the matter about Project Eternity and Infinity, and our survival as a people."

Decisions were made that day, decisions that decide the fate of the entire Alpha and Beta Quadrants itselves.

Hours after the meeting, strange incidents would happen at locations, of wich only the people working there and very few others knew of.

A new ship that was busy making it's first test-run, was suddenly taken over by a so-called Trojan horse in it's computer system. Toxin nerve gas that was secretly installed, flooded the corridors and quarters of the ship, killing all of it's crew. The computer virus took control of the ship's helm and navigation and before the small escorts that surrounded the large ship could do anything, the ship jumped to warpspeed to an unknown location, leaving behind the suprised and shocked scientists and soldiers. The ship traveled at it's highest speed for days, and stopped at a giant asteroid field in a system beyond the Cardassian border. Than the computer virus directed the ship into a secret hideout, and when the ship was safe from enemy eyes, it took all of the systems onboard off-line, and erased itself from the computer. he ship was now waiting, for someone worthy and reliable who would discover it and make use of it again.

Somewhere else, at the fringes of charted space, a secret base who was even more secret than the ship, suffered the same fate as it was taken over by a hidden computer virus, and again killing the organic crew. Than a set of hhighly-advanced cloaking devices, stolen from a expirmental Romulan ship, were activated and the base began to fade from sight. And again all of it's systems were taken off-line and the virus erased. Again it's location a secret, since a computer virus at the memory banks of the Central Command on Cardassia erased all data on the location and all other data, from personnell files to progress reports.

Back on Soukara, Damar was the only one left in the meeting chamber after the others were informed of their role in his plan and left to prepare for it. Damar stepped on the transporter booth and tried to memorize the speech he was about to give from his newly built hideout. The units wich pledged loyal to him were already in the proces of leaving their frontline positions and go into hiding at hideouts all across the Union. And for the first time, but not the last time, Damar wondered if the things he done today would ensure survival or doom for the Cardassian race. Damar tapped on his combadge and waited until jis ship responded.

"Legate Damar here, one to beam up."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Several Months Later**

The Cardassians have become the cannon fodder of the Dominion Axis and they have begon to lose more and more Cardassian worlds and systems to so-called "allies" like the Breen and even those aliens who promised to deliver Ketracel-White but were convinced by the Federation not to and still the Dominion gave them a Cardassian colony. But the reason why the planet whas given was more out of revenge than true thankfulness because it was the planet on wich Corat Damar was born, former leader of the Cardassian Union and now dead resistance fighter, who caused the Dominion much damage by destroying cloning facilities and supply depots, but most of all gave a working Breen Energy Dampening Device to the enemy, making the Breen's special weapon that was tipping the balance of power towards the Dominion, useless.

Jem'hadar soldiers were stationed on every Cardassian planet, military base, starbase and ship, to ensure that there would be no further rebellion or hostilty towards their Dominion friends. All military decisions and stratagies, who at first were created by the Cardassians, were now in the hands of the Breen. The Cardassian military had no more authority over itself, and the only thing they were allowed and forced to do was to fight and die for the Dominion.

But amongst all the Cardassians who were angry at their Dominion and Breen "friends", there was one Cardassian who was quite sattisfied with the current situation, and that one was Gul Revok. Soon to be Legate Revok, he reminded himself as he sat in the Gul's chair and beholded the battle in front of him, from his Keldon-class warship CUS Grayel. The weak-minded Federation, stupid Klingons and even the cowardly Romulans have realized the Dominion stratagey of fortying their postitions and rebuild until they are strong enough to crush the entire Alpha Quadrant in one stroke and have now launched a futile attempt to defeat the mighty Dominion and it's powerful allies the Cardassians once and for all. Revok was sure he was going to be one of the people who will enjoy this victory. Revok was even more sure that when the battle was over and the enemy defeated, that fool Broca will be executed because of incompetance and that he, Gul Revok, will become the new leader of the Cardassian Union.

The battle was going badly for the enemy, the Klingons have taken great losses and were before the battle already in a bad shape and the Romulans have lost their command ship and their lines began to crumble. Revok thought at the punishments he would give them when they have fallen under the heel of the Dominion for ever trying to resist them.

As Revok was fantasizing what he would do as the new leader of the Union, a young Gil that was operating the Comm console began to shout in suprise and shock.

"Gul Revok! The Kraxon has just destroyed two Jem'hadar ships!"

"What!" Revok jumped out of his chair and began to shout orders

"Send two Galors to destroy the Kraxon and send a message to the Jem'hadar command to regret the friendly fire and.."

"Gul! Two Hidekis have joined the Kraxon and have begon firing on Breen and Jem'hadar ships!"

Great, more of those idiots Revok thought. Revok hoped they wouldn't destroy too much before being destroyed because than Weyoun wouldn't be pleased. Mabye he would let Broca keep his position to punish Revok.

"Send f.." But was again interuppeted by the Gil, who began to panicki.

"Sir, now 5, 9, 14, 34, 47...Sir, half of all Cardassian ships are now firing on the Jem'hadar and Breen and rising!."

Revok himself began to panick. This wasn't some isolated Gul who went nuts, this was a full-blood rebellion. Revok tried to think of a way to convince the others to stop their atack on their allies, and if they didn't do it soon, the enemy might start to win. Meanwhile the Comm officer continued his reports.

"Sir, 79 precent of the fleet has now...Sir, incoming transmission from Cardassia Prime and it says..it says that the Dominion has..wiped out Lakaria City! Two million civillians have been killed!"

The bridge crew who were at first confused by the sudden rebellion of their fellow ships, were shocked, but than anger began to grow in them. The gil who first felt betrayed, was now in full support of the rebellion and along with the bridge began to cheer whenever a Jem'hadar or Breen ship was seen destroyed on the tactical display on the viewscreen, whenever it was a Cardassian or their former enemy who made the kill. The young gil turned to where the Gul sat and was prepared to be given new orders to assault the Jem'hadar, but the Gul's chair was empty. There was no sign of Gul Revok.

Moments later, Gul Revok exited out of the turbolift he jumped into on the bridge, merely 6 seconds ago. Revok was a fast thinker, and knew that if the other Cardassians were over their hate for the Dominion, the first person they would come after will be him. Revok ran as he never ran before to the shuttle deck and entered the first shuttle he came across. Several hard taps on the helm console, and the shuttle's began to warm-up. Revok increased power to the engines and when the shuttle was released from it's docking clams, he turned the shuttle's nose to the open hangar bay doors and flew out, on full impulse. Luckily for Revok, his ship was at the edge of the battle and after avoiding a single wrecked Romulan Warbird, Revok's shuttle was away from the battle. Revok frantically tried to think of a plan to save his position, since with the Cardassians on their side, the enemy would almost certainly be able to defeat the enemy and march up to Cardassia Prime. Revok wouldn't be safe anywhere in a Cardassia without the Dominion because he betrayed their greatest hero. As he thought these things, hate began to rise in him. Hate, not against the Dominion who brought this to him, but hate against Damar, the Cardassian people, the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans, all those wretched bastards who have taken away his future as leader of a mighty nation.

Revok would make them pay, all of them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the same time Gul Revok left the battle, a Federation Runabout entered it.

But it didn't appear on the Federation side of the battle, but at the edge of the Jem'hadar side, wich was struggling to regain the upper hand after the betrayal of the Cardassians. Several minutes later, the order to retreat would come, but too late for the lonely group of Jem'hadar ships who were the farest away of the battle and who were now being approached by the small Runabout.

The Runabout was flying undetected towards the Jem'hadar ships, until it reached sensor range. In response, two Jem'hadar Atack ships turned away from the battle and flew a intercept course towards the runabout. Their Vorta ordered them to capture the Runabout, because it could contain important Starfleet officers who accidently landed on the wrong side of the fight. The Vorta than send a hailing message to the Runabout to surrender itself or be destroyed.

The Runabout sent a hailing message back, wich only took about 30 seconds before it was ended by the Runabout, but the few words said were enough for the Vorta to make a very low bow and order all of the ships that were near to follow the Runabout. The Runabout than turned away from the battle, transmitted coordinates to the ships that were following and than left at high warpspeed. Than the Vorta and the Jem'hadar followed, in total 9 Atack Ships and three Battlecruisers, who than inserted the coordinates given by the Runabout and follow it at the highest warpspeed, leaving the main Dominion fleet behind and just before the order to retreat to Cardassia Prime and make a stand there was given by Weyoun..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Five Years Later**

**The Briar Patch, Federation Space, 2380**

The Briar Patch or Klach D'Kel Brakt, like the Klingons like to call it, was an inhospitable area of space, filled with strange and dangerous anomalies. But Starfleet had built there a outpost anyway but not without reason. Outpost 40's main objective was to explore and monitoring the anomalies and to protect the planet Ba'ku wich was an M-class planet located in the centre of the Briar Patch. The reason why the planet was so important to protect was because of the unique effect caused by the planets metaphasic radiated rings that caused the planet's inhabitants not to age. The inhabitants of Ba'ku had named themselves after the planet, and are a small agricultural community, that forbid any development or use of advanced technology.

The planet's unique effect on people had attracted ruthless races in the past. It's biggest threat had been a race of decadent and aging aliens who after a agreement with the Federation, wanted to extract the metaphasic radiation with a special collector ship from the planet's rings and use it for themselves.

But a investigation by the Enterprise-E, the Federation's flagship, discovered that the extracting proces would kill every living thing on the planet. The Enteprise also discovered that the aliens were actually Ba'ku, exiled from the planet five decades ago when they tried to take over the community but failed. The former Ba'ku looked for revenge, and almost succeded, if it wasn't for the brave Captain of the Enteprise who stopped them. Their leader was killed, and the collector destroyed and so many of them retreated back to the little empire they created in their first years away from the Briar Patch.

There had been no further attempts of the aliens to take the planet, expect for a hasty, disorganized atack that was repelled by the USS Defiant and a small rebellion by a colony that was shortly established on the planet.

Because of the old age the aliens suffered from, most of the admirals at Starfleet Headquarters believed that they have died out or weakened to the point where they even can't hold control over their slave labourers. But they couldn't explain why than dozens of ships dissapear when near the territory of the old Ba'ku exiles.

Commander Taurik of Outpost 40 was a Vulcan in his ninties, and did not believe any of the rumours about that the exiles were still active. That's why he wasn't suspicious of the cargo ship USS Ashford that was approaching the outpost with the monthly supplies. The Ashford's captain was a joyful Bolian who always made bad jokes about the conditions in the Briar Patch, but now he only talked when he had to answer a question and than only with a simple "Yes" or "No". If there had been somebody who had thought showing no emotions was weird, mabye they would have ordered the cargo ship to stop. But wouldn't have mattered if it did happen.

Currently, a officer at the dock was granting the Ashford to enter the Outpost's dock for unloading of supplies. The large cargo ship slowley moved to the side, and waited until the station's docking clams had gripped the docking ports and secured the ship nice and tightly. The transporters began to transport the containers from the Ashford and into one of the cargo bays of the Outpost.

As soon as Commander Taurik reported to the cargo captain all the supplies were onboard the station, the Bolian confirmed with the word "Roger," and moved his hand towards another console and tapped a single button. The result was that in all the containers that were beamed onboard the station, a red light blinked on and off, and making a peeping noise. The crewmembers who were busy loading them into shelves were suprised by the sudden activaty in the containers they were hauling around, but didn't have time to respond when the Bolian pressed a second button on his console, and detonated the armed explosives inside of the containers.

All at once, they exploded and vapourized everything in their inmediate vicinty. The explosives wrecked and destroyed the entire station, even the Ashford was caught in the blast and it's captain killed, leaving nonething but a huge sorched wreck behind.

Only moments later, twenty ships, some of them were big and resembled big black boomerangs or smaller old Earthern horseshoes, glided through the gas clouds near the Ba'ku planet and wich had hidden them from senor readings and organic eyes. The alien ships flew in loose formation, and than a gigantic ship also appeared from the gas clouds, and the smaller ships broke formation and surrounded the huge ship like angry wasps. The giantic ship moved until it was in reach of the Ba'ku planet rings, and than deployed it's sails to full length. The large alien ship now looked like a old Bajoran lightsail ship, but the alien ship's sails served a different purpose as they enchanced the collection of the metaphasic radiation in the planet rings.

In one of the ships that surrounded the collector ship, a hand pressed a button and the collector launched a injector into the planet rings, creating a cascading reaction within the rings, allowing the collector to harvest the radiation that emanting from them.

Within the time-span of ten seconds, the Ba'ku planet was made inhabitable as the casading effect destroyed mountains and oceans, valleys and deserts, even a small village that was vaporized in seconds, leaving nonthing standing or living.

As the planet was being wrecked and destroyed, the man reponsible for pressing the button, smiled. For decades, he had dreamed of this moment, and this time the Federation was unable to stop them. When this will be over, his race will be young and vital again, and finally start the second phase of their plan.

After several minutes, the collector had collected all of the radiation and began to un-deploy it's sails, plotted a course for the planet it came from, and flew off, again dissapearing in the gas clouds. It's escorts followed swiftly as their job here today has been done.

The exiled have taken revenge after decades and finally there were no more Ba'ku left.

Only the Son'a.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Federation News Channell**

_Dr. Farallon, famous inventor of the Exocomp repair units, has been reported missing. Dr. Farallon, after the Particle Fountain project was completed, went to retire in the Sedara system, near Betazed. In a interview, two years ago, she had said to have begon a new project that was to be concentrated on robotics, after the succes of the Exocomps._

_But last Saturday, A Starfleet ship was that was patrolling the area, visited her labortory on the planet, and had found no sign of her._

_Her labortories had been found emptyied and deserted as well. Starfleet officals say that criminals may have been involved with the disapearnce of Dr. Farallon, and will begin a investigation to find Dr. Farallon's whereabouts._

_The disapearance of Dr Farallon made it the fourteenth missing of a interstellar expert in AI and robotics, in the last three years._

_In other news, the Allied Federation, Klingon and Romulan fleet is only three days away before beginning Operation Exodus, after a year of preparation. Operation Exodus has in the preparing stage inmediatly after the Borg atacks on Earth, Quon'nos and Romulus that cost the lives of sixty million people, exactly one year ago. The operation involves the invasion and ending of the Borg threat, to prevent the atacks from ever happening again. Only a year ago, such a operation would have been impossible, but after the President of the UFP's order, the weapons that came from the future and were brought by Voyager, are now used as special anti-Borg weapons. The order was met with resistance from Starfleet's Temporal Division, and a failed attempt to destroy the weapons by Admiral Janewayl. Janeway tried to defend her actions by saying it was against the Prime Directive to use weapons from the future, but she was locked up in a psychic insitute on Vulcan anyway. Many of her collague admirals and her former crew are known to have cheered at the hearng of this news._

_But even with effective weapons, the Delta Quadrant would have been too far away for a military retaliation action, if it wasn't for a species known only as the Uoy-Stoidi, who further wanted to remain anyomous. The Uoy-Stoidi gave the Federation plans for a artificial wormhole wich is able to transport the entire fleet in one journey to Borg space and will._

_Because of the expectations of Borg and military experts, the fleet will certainly have to face thousands and if not millions of Borg ships, and therefore is forced to deploy every active ship for this mission. Ships who have been mothballed or are in heavy repair, will be left behind to guard the territories of the UFP, Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire. The Cardassian Republic will not be sending any ships, since their fleet has been in a decimated state, ever since the Dominion War and only at the end of the year will be allowed to a limited rebuilding of their fleet. Federation officals have stated that the whole operation will be over in at most six months time and will be back before Christmas._

**End of Broadcast**

**Cardassia Prime, Cardassian Republic, 2385**

The sun rose high above the capital of Cardassia Prime, and it shined down on the hundreds of large metal and stone buildings. In the past, the buildings had been constructed out of only stone, but after the city's destruction in the final hours of the Dominion war, it has been rebuilt with Federation aid and their presence influenced Cardassian architectures to use new materials.

But not only the buildings have been changed, the entire way of life for the Cardassian race has been changed in many ways. The education was changed to from being competive and predatory, to being helpfull and work with each other. The justice system was from being guilty until proven otherwise, to being unguilty until proven otherwise. The last remaining shreds of the Obsidian Order had been washed away, and replaced with the Ivorian Order, who holds protection, justice and service of the Cardassian people high. Trade relations had been restored with other nations and species, and focused on fair trade, instead of demanding. Species that had been conquered by the Cardassians in the past, had been convinced to stay, in exchange for influence and positions in the goverment.

And the Cardassians changed their fascist Union, into the democratic Cardassian Republic..and all with the help of the United Federation of Planets, who became the Republic's closest ally.

Some Cardassians, like Legate Parn and Gul Hadar, weren't pleased with this, as it was, as they saw it, a weakening of the might of the Cardassian people by the Federation. They wanted to restore their power and wealth as a nation to be feared, instead of being respected. But they were a minority, among the many Cardassians who at first were suspicious, but later thankfully welcomed the changes.

But during all of this, the Cardassian military, once fourth most powerful in the Alpha Quadrant, was and still is, severly weakend after the Dominion war.

During the aftermath of the war, the allies had ordered that the remaining number of Cardassian ships should be brought down to a hundred, and the rest mothballed under guard. Crews of the remaining ships are veterans of the Dominion War, and are not allowed to retire until the ten-year restriction of recruiting and training new crews and officers was over.

But after a year, the Federation allowed the Republic to start a new officer academy, since the old academy was destroyed during the Dominion's attempt on genocide. The new academy was built and it's learning was copied from the famous Starfleet Academy, meaning that instead of just space tactics and ground combat, medicine, stellar cartography, engineering and science will be taught as well. All species that lived in the Cardassian Republic were allowed to join the new Ghemor Academy, and it's entrance exams were focused on the quality of the student, not the familiy the student came from. It's headmistress was Gul Occet, who had been in the Resistance in the last year of the war, and was one of the few who surived Revok's treason. And after a year, the Academy's first class of young officers had passed their exams, and were about to serve on some of the remaining warships and starbases, in order to gain expierence before serving, and in some cases, commanding the new ships that the shipyards will be allowed to build at the end of the year.

One of them did not await the hand-sakes and gratulations after the graduation, and instead headed for his appartment in the Arrakeen District. Unlike his fellow students, Jasen Danar isn't a strong supporter of the close ties between the Republic and the Federation. Danar was annoyed with the attitude of his goverment, who followed every suggestion and order of the Federation without questioning. While Danar was grateful for the Federation of helping them with rebuilding their worlds and showing them there was another way than aggresive expansion, they should stop looking over the backs of the Cardassians and the de-militarizing. Danar didn't have much faith in the new rebuilding of the fleet, with only two-hundred additional ships allowed. Even with the standing ships, the fleet would consist out of three hundred ships, of wich a third needs to be heavily refitted. Three-hundred ships are a joke compaired to the thousands of ships of the Federation, Romulans and Klingons, and the fleet's size made any offensive action impossible, condeming the warships to patrolling and taking defensive positions.

As Danar walked through the busy street and aproached his appartment building, one of the countless new buildings that consisted of a fusion between metal and stone, he wondered why he wanted to join a organization who's final goal(thanks to the Feds) is to become an oversized coast guard. It propably because of his father, the famous Gul Danar. Gul Danar became famous when he joined the Cardassian Resistance, along with Gul Occet and Evek. Danar send his wife and his son to Earth, where there was already a big community of Cardassian political refugees. There, Jasen and his mother stayed until news of Revok's betrayal came through, and that his father had been executed by the Dominion. When Cardassia Prime was later liberated, Jasen and his mother traveled towards their homeplanet on board a Federation transport with emergency supplies. They helped with the rebuilding, and his mother gained a high position in the new Ministry of Art years later, wich was focused on Cardassia regaining the former status of being a supplier of beatiful and unique art and architechture. Jasen, finding a civillian too boring, applied for the entrance exams for the new Ghemor Academy and passed. Some people suspected Danar to have used his father's name to gain entrance, but soon it turned out that Jasen was a excellent student with high

scores, and teachers regarded him as born for a command post, and in their student reviews predicted him to be in command of a cruiser within five years.

The only negative commens on Danar were his viewings on the strong ties between the Federation and the Republic, and often commented that the Federation should withdraw from Cardassian foreign affairs, claiming that they are not be babysitted by them and to be treated as an equal instead of an igorant child. Some fellow students regarded Danar to be an follower of the Restoration Cadre, a organization headed by Legate Parn and consisted out of people who wanted the pre-war Union restored. But Danar didn't want anything to do with the Cadre, as they were igorant fools who thought that the past can be restored again and that they would again ascend to high positions and gain much power. But this was now the present, and even if the Cadre managed to change the Republic again into a aggresive expansonist nation, Danar would still not join them because the Cardassians would never be seen as a major power, only as one of the many war-like regional powers like the Tholians and the Gorn.

Danar passed his final exams as third best of out of a hundred cadets, and gained the rank of Gil first class. Legate Occet herself visited Danar and had given him the order to report to Corat Nor, over 72 hours and to await the ship on wich he would serve on. Danar predicted it would propably would be a n old Hideki, and a six-month patrol mission to the Badlands to search for smugglers and pirates. Danar's future didn't look to bright at this moment but it would sadden his mother deeply if he quite the military at this point and besides, a civillian life would be boring and his familiy would be disgraced if he became a mercenary or a smuggler.

Danar entered the building his appartment was in and stepped into the turbolift, wich took him about three seconds to reach the twentieth floor and to exit the turbolift. Danar thought about the Graduation party that was going to be held at the Academy this evening, and wondered if he would go there. Most fellow cadets were suspicious of him, but Danar did manage to gather some friends during his year at the Academy. Like his best friend Hektor, a large and musculed young man who was going to be placed in the Ground Forces.

Danar reached his appartment and touched the thumb-identification print on the door, and was still in a internal twist of to or not to go to the Graduation party, when someone collided with him at great speed. The impact made Danar to fall forover, and he would have slammed against the door if it wasn't already opended. Danar fell into his appartment, but managed to get into a headroll, as he learned to do during self-defense classes on the Academy. Danar stand up again and turned around, wanting to know who collided with him. There in the door opening, there stood an old man, dressed in brown civillian clothing and wearing a long dark coat. The old man was breathing heavily and his body was visibly trembling as if he was in great pain. His face was drenched in pain and looked unnaturally pale, even for a Cardassian.

"H-help m-me.." And than the old stumbled forover on to the floor. Danar catched the old man, and tried to keep him on his feet.

"Sir? are you injured? stay with me and remain calm while i go call a ambu.."

"NO!" the old man suddenly shouted and his hands grabbed Danar's uniform with suprising strength." Y-you need to w-warn E-e-evek, t-they have it, they have f-f-found I-nfinity..t-they are after Eternity-y now.."

"What do you mean? what are Infinity and Eternity? Who are They?"

"H-here" The old man reached for a pocket in his coat, and took out a small brown box, with on it the old Cardassian Union symbol. "G-give it to E-Evek, he will unders-stand.."

The old man placed the little box in Danar's hand, and for the first time Danar saw that the old man's hands, as well as the box were covered in a red-coloured liquid...blood.

"Mr, are you bleeding? How bad is it? I will now call the meds if you like it or not because.." But Danar's words couldn't reach the old man, who slowly stopped breathing, and his pulse stopped moving. The old man was dead and had found giving this little brown box to a stranger more important than going to a hospital. Who are what were Eternity and Infinity and what did Legate Evek have to do with it? Why did the old man come to him while he was dying? Who were "They"?. Danar was filled with questions, and was determined to find out the answers. Danar carefully let go of the dead old man and lay him on the floor while he stood up and was again about to activate his commbadge on his right arm wrist, but stopped when he suddenly felt something pointy and cold pressing in his neck and a voice that spoke in a voice that was being masked by some sort of electronic voice scrambler.

"Where is the box, You have ten seconds to give me the right answer or i will blow a hole through your skull."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tip of the phaser pressed even deeper into Danar's neck, as a physical warning to warn him that his time is running out. The probable murder of the old man, wanted the box and since the murderer killed the old man for the box, Danar would be killed as well if he handed the box over just like that.

' Uuuh, I don't what you are talking abou..'

'FIVE SECONDS!' And the tip pressed even deeper into his neck, almost touching the bone.

' I don't have it, i don't what you are talking about?' Time was getting short, while Danar tried to think a way out of this.

'Three, Two, One..'

"WAIT, It's in my right hand..just don't kill me.'

'Reach out your right hand, slowly, and than give it to me..'

Danar slowly reached his right hand backwards as he was told by the murderer. Than suddenly he came up with a idea. Danar opended his hand, letting the box fall on the floor. The murderer was suprised by this unexpected action of Danar, and the phaser tip in Danar's neck was pulled, as the man was temporialy distracted. Danar decided that it was no or ever, and used his Self-Defense training from the Academy, as he was tought to act in such situations.

Danar quickly turned around and grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the phaser and twisted it, causing the murderer to drop the phaser out of pain, and removing the biggest threat for Danar. The murderer used his other hand and flung a powerfull punch towards Danar, but because it was badly aimed, it only glanced Danar but was enough to have him release the murderer's wrist. The murderer continued his atack with several kicks, wich Danar managed to block all but one, and send him falling backwards onto the appartment's floor. As Danar got up again, he took his time now to take a look at his atacker. The murderer was dressed in a long brown robe, the same as used by Bajoran monks and wich is propably used to disguise himself. One of the reasons why Danar knew that this wasn't a real Bajoran monk, was because of the black leather gloves, the grey and muddy boots who normally are used by soldiers, and the black metallic mask, wich was made to poorly imitate a Human face with a open mouth, but still looked sinister and menacing.

' That was a big mistake Cardassian, a real big mistake!'

The murderer said, and to add truth to that statement, the murderer pulled out an long, blood-stained knife under his robes. Without waiting to make another threat or try to scare Danar, he inmediatly slashed out at him, making a small cut in his upper left arm, and followed it by making a quick stabbing move that Danar nearly managed to avoid. Luckily for Danar, the Self-Defense training on the Academy had been given by a number of profesenials, of wich one was the notorious Calyx. Calyx used to be a hand-to-hand teacher at the Barmarren Institute for the young people who came from high-placed families, but after the war, decided that his teachings should not be limited to the upper-clas, but also to people who will really need it, Like just now. The murderer again slashed out, but this time Danar managed to dive under the knive and give a side-ward kick into his opponent, making him fall to his knees as he tried to grasp breath again. Danar used this small window of time to kick the knife out of the murderer's hand, and it flung several metres away. The murderer stood up again, and began to deal a series of fast punches and kicks, wich Danar managed to block, all but one punch to the face that made him stumble backwards. Danar wasn't fast enough to react, when the murderer leapt towards Danar, and rammed him with his body, making both men to tumble over the Arkellian couch, a birthday present of his mother, that stood behind them. As they went tumbling over the couch, both men grabbed each other and tried to strangle the other one.

The murderer managed to get a hold of Danar's throat, and began to squeeze. Danar was unable to pull the other man's hands away, and black spots began to appear in front of his eyes. Time and oxygen began to run out for Danar, but to his luck he noticed that they had stumbled from the couch and against the saloon table in the middle of the room. He stretched out his hand, and tried to grab something that could be used as a weapon. Danar had only a few seconds before he lost consicous and eventually, his life. His hands moved wildy across the table and managed to get a grip on a Romulan stone figurine, another birthday present of a relative, and after holding it tight and brought it down on the head of the murderer with all his strength.

The figurine broke, unfortunatly the head of the assailant didn't. But the impact was still strong enough to go uncousious. His grip around Danar's throat was released, and the young Cardassian inmediatly grasped for some hard-needed fresh air

" Thank you, aunt Lang..." Danar mumbled as he got on his feet again, still breathing heavy after the near-choking and pushing the uncousious murderer off him. When Danar breathed normally again, he walked towards the comm-unit on the wall again to call the Ivorian Order to report a murder and a murderer.

"Hey Joe!" a voice similair to the murderer shouted." You finished that ol' spoonhead already? Joe?"

Danar turned around and saw a another man entering his appartment. This man was disguised in the same way as the other one, but was taller and had a Klingon disruptor in his hand. This man was probably on the outlook, while the first one was trying to kill Danar. The lookout was suprised by the impossible outcome of the fight that should have ended very differently. He than came to his senses and raised his disruptor and aimed for the comm-unit, destroying it with two good-aimed hits. Meanwhile Danar had used the few extra seconds to dive to the floor and take cover behind the couch. The lookout moved weapon into a different direction and fired his disruptor in rapid shots at the couch, and dozens of green energy bolts tore the couch where Danar was behind hiding to pieces. But Danar had already crawled away from the couch, and moved towards his appartment's balcony. Danar opended the balcony and made a headroll to evade disruptor fire wich vaporized the very place hr was standing. Danar got up and quickly closed the door and looked for a way out.

" You are making it too easy now, Cardie, but i won't complain!"

The lookout changed the setting on his disruptor from the normal-killing setting, to the maximium. Carefully putting some distance between him and the door, and than squeezed the trigger. With a giantic force, the door was blasted out of the balcony and fell some 20 stories down. The lookout stepped through the door with his disruptor at the ready, expecting a Cardassian with no way out.

Instead, he found a deserted balcony, and no sign of the Cardassian. The man slowly walked towards the edge of the balcony and looked down, suspecting that the Cardassian was trying to climb down. He was only half-right because Danar had climbed up, instead down, and had been hanging above the door, waiting for a chance and now was that time.

"Suprise, asshole!" Danar shouted and jumped with his feet against the back of the lookout, who out of suprise dropped his disruptor wich than fell on the balcony floor. The lookout himself nearly fell over the edge and turned angrily towards Danar who in return was suprised that the impact didn't snap his spine. The lookout made a unexpected kick towards Danar, who got it right in the stomach and took the all the air out of him. The man than reached for his disruptor on the floor and was about to aim it on Danar. Danar was barely recovered from the kick, but still reacted with his last of his strength. He leapt up and rammed his shoulder into the lookout's stomach as hard as he could. The force he used was too much, as the lookout slammed back against the edge and than, fell over it.

With a loud scream that sounded surrealistic because of the voice scrambler, and still holding the disruptor in his hand, the lookout fell twenty stories down until he impacted on a parked hovercar with a sickly bone-snapping sound. People on the street screamed as they saw the broken and lifeless body. Danar looked down from his balcony and felt aweful for killing someone for the first time in his life, even if it was by accident and self-defense. But than he suddenly heard a phaser being fired behind him. Danar duck to the floor and grabbed the Klingon disruptor that still lay there. But no more shots were fired, and Danar realized that it came from inside the appartment. Carefully, he stepped back into the appartment's living, and saw the murderer who was called Joe by the lookout but strangely enough the body of the old man was gone. Joe was on his knees on the floor, frantically looking for something with his phaser in his hand. Joe suddenly noticed Danar and jumped up, firing his phaser at Danar who fired back and hid for cover behind a closet.

"Fuck this!" Joe shouted and fired a second time while he turned around and ran for the appartment door. Danar fired his disruptor two more times but failed to hit him and began to run after him. Joe was already at the end of the corridor when Danar came out of his appartment and ran past the corner, in the direction of the turbo lifts. After several seconds, Joe reached the hallway where the turbo lifts were located. Danar reached the hallway only a few seconds later, but was too late to catch Joe who had jumped into a open turbolift and closed the doors. Danar raised his weapon in attempt to shoot through the doors before the turbolift was gone, but suddenly a turbolift next to Joe's opended and two white-clad Ivorian officers with phasers exited the turbolift. As soon as they saw Danar and the disruptors, they aimed their weapons on him.

"DROP YOUR WEAPON NOW!" One of them shouted and Danar quickly dropped the disruptor and realized that his hands and his uniform had still blood on it from the old man.

"Now, put your hands behind your back, slowly, Belark cuff him and read him his rights." The cop called Belark lowered his weapon and retrieved a pair of Tritantium-made handcuffs and put them on Danar's wrists. While Belark began to read Danar his rights, Danar thought of this day to be the worst in his life, and little did he know there would be more days like this, a lot more.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Ivorian Order Precint 42**

"Please repeat your name and rank."

"Danar, Jasen. Gil First Class and this is the fifth time i had to repeat that.."

"Sorry sir, but i forget to remember it, bad memory."

The interigation was going like this for three hours, and Danar was growing uncomfortable for the second time after his arrest. The Ivorian Order called after neighbours heard shouting, fighting and shooting in Danar's appartment and a report about a dead person who fell from the balcony from the same building created lots of suspicion towards Danar. Especially after inspecting his appartment, and finding the whole place thrased, 1, 5 litres of blood of a old man who has been reported missing, phaser and disruptor holes on almost every wall, and tricorder-scans that indicated that someone has been vaporized recently. And since the only defense of Danar was that a masked man dressed as a Bajoran monk killed the old man and tried to kill him aswell, and that the man who was forcibly thrown of the balcony was a outlook and that he fell by accident. So Danar didn't have much hope on coming out on bail. The interrigation was taking place in a dark and cold room, a remain of the old Obsidian Order but are now used by the Ivorian Order but they use it for questioning suspects and criminals, not people who been grabbed of the street.

In the middle of the room, there was a small table at wich Danar and the Ivorian interigator were sitting. On the table, several objects were placed andall protected by small statis-fields. The Klingon disruptor was there, along with the blood-stained knife that Joe dropped and the small brown box with the Union symbol on it.

"So according to you" the investigator suddenly began" a old man who was already dying, asked you for help and said something about "Eternity" and "Infinity" and gave you that little brown box and than died, am i right?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"And when you tried to call the Ivorian Order, a man disguised as a Bajoran monk, but with black gloves and a voice scrambler, threatened you and asked you for the box and than got into a fight, and when you managed to knock him out, another man entered the appartment, a "lookout" as you called him, and than tried to kill you with the Klingon disruptor. You than fled to your balcony and than suprised him and made him to drop the weapon, and when he tried to pick it up again, you accidently used to much force and pushed him over the edge...Am i again right?"

"Yes.."

"And after that, you picked up the disruptor, and entered your appartment and found the first man who had regained counsious and than fired several times at in your general direction, and than fled towards the turbolifts, and escaped while two officers arrested you?"

"Yes.."

This was looking bad for Danar, with a hardly-believable story about masked assasins, a used Klingon disruptor with only his thumbprints on it, a unarmed man who has been pushed over the edge by someone who was already suspcious, and a blood-stained Union datarod, of wich there only one or two left in the galaxy after the destruction of Central Command and making it worth thousands of latinum bars. Danar looked like a perfect suspect, along with his suspected ties with the Restoration Cadre.

The interigator stood up from his chair and walked towards the only door in the room.

"If you will excuse me, i'll be right back."

The door slammed shut, and Danar wondered how he will get out of this. Mother will be so displeased with this, mabye this will even cost her postition in the Ministrey of Art. Danar lowered his head, and tried to think of a happy time before all of this happend.

In a darkend room next to the interigation room, three Cardassians and one Human were watching Danar on a view screen through a hidden visual sensor in the other room's ceiling. One of the three Cardassians was the interigator, a old veteran of the Obsidian Order who had been given the choice of joining the Ivorian Order or life like a beggar in the streets.

The other two Cardassians were dressed in military uniforms, with the rank of Legate on both of them.

"I see that the boy has inherited a lot from his father, including his ability to get into some serious trouble." The youngest Cardassian said.

The legate was in his forties, and had unusal facial hair, wich again was unusal because facial hair was very rare seen on Cardassians.

"But he also inherited his father's luck and intelligence, being the first person to survive a assasination attempt by...them." This time the eldest of them spoke. This legate was in his late eighties, but still had a air of vitality around.

The two legates looked at the viewscreen, and observed the small box, with the blood still on it.

"Poor Berim..If he just had been more carefull.." the old legate started.

"He died in the service of the Republic, Evek. Just like any loyal Cardassian would do." his younger collague commented.

"Mabye, but i still believe that he had rather died in a warm bed and surrounded by familiy, than being stabbed and bleed to death in a gil's residence, Macet."

There was a silence, and before it became uneasy, the Human who had been waiting in the back of the room, made a slight couch and treaded forward. The Human had a Starfleet communicator on the left side of his chest, indicating that he was from Starfleet. But that was the only thing that identified him as a Starfleet officer, and Macet and Evek weren't too sure if the Human was human at all.

His clothes were definatly not Starfleet issue, as they were darker than the night and simple but made out of very expensive Tholian silk and tailored by the best tailors in the Alpha Quadrant. The human himself looked very unusal, being tall and thin with pale blue cat-like eyes, long narrow hands, and very light blond hair that he wears brushed straight back from his forehead. His skin was unnaturally pale as well. The Starfleet officer walked towards the viewscreen with elegant, almost cat-like steps.

"Still" the Human said with a southern accent. "..Mr Ressil wouldn't have come to Gil Danar's appartment without a good reason. I presume that Mr Ressil knew Gul Danar?"

"Yes" Evek answered "They were childhood friends but grew apart when Berim joined the Obsidian Order, and Danar Central Command."

"I see..but after 20 years of not seeing not each other, Mr Ressil still used his last strengths to go to Gul Danar's son. Gil Danar might be useful in our investigation into the whereabouts of Project Eternity, and perhaps even it's sister project.."

"But he is only a Gil!" Macet protested. "A Gil cannot help us with our search!"

"That's why he will be promoted to Glinn, and will be the commander of our search party." Evek said with a slight smile on his face.

"WHAT!" Macet shouted " YOU ARE GOING TO PROMOTE HIM TO GLINN? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND! I'LL BE DAMNED IF I LET SOME KID TO BE OUR AGENT IN THIS MATTER!"

"That's the difference between you and me, Macet. I can and will make him a glinn. Wether you like it or not."

Macet looked at Evek with anger, and was about to shout again but than growled out of disagrement, turned around and left the room.

Evek looked at the Starfleet officer with satisfaction on his face.

"Don't you worry about Macet, Lieutenant-Commander Pendergast, Glinn Danar will be a great help to our effort to find Eternity. If someone could do it, Jasen Danar can."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Parmak Hospital Morgue**

Ever since the Federation and the Cardassian Republic signed a peace treaty after the war, Starfleet officers were a common sight in the streets. It was however unusal to see them in a hospital morgue, especially live ones.The two Starfleet officers came in 5 minutes ago, and requested to see the deceased body of a Federation citizen who was brought in the last 24 hours and the cause of death must be death by fall. The Cardassian doctor who was present at the time showed them the corpse, and didn't protest against the body's removal from the morgue after they shown him a order signed by the Central Operations.

The doctor didn't know that two hours later, the body of Frankie "Shorty" Casparzo was vaporized by one of the two Starfleet officers, and they had thrown away their authentic but stolen Starfleet uniforms and than left Cardassia Prime in a unregistered shuttlecraft and set a course for a small system near the Cardassian border.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Ivorian Order Precint 42**

Danar told by the Ivorian officers that due to a lack of evidence, that he would be released from their custody and that no further harrasment would take place. They gave back his combadge and ID, and Danar let out a sigh of relief when the exited the Ivorian Order building and walked down the large stone stairs in front of it.

At the beginning of the steps, Danar saw a human standing next to a silver-painted Wraith Arrow Hover from 2288. The human seemd to be waiting for him, and possesed a very unnatural appearance, or at least for a human.

"Mr Danar, i presume?"

"Yeah..who wants to know?"

The human began to smile, something what did the opposite of what it supposed to do. The human's skin was white-pale, a dead person would be less pale than this man.

"The name is Pendergast, Lieutenant-Commander Pendergast, from Starfleet Security."

For a Lieutenant Commander from Starfleet, Pendergast sure looked out of place. He didn't wore the standard black and grey uniform, but was dressed like a undertaker, but still a undertaker with a well-tailored and expensive fabric made suit. Pendergast's eyes were the most amazing about them, as they were as blue as a Terran ocean, and just as deep.

Danar wondered what the human wanted from him, and was also curious to what Pendergast really was, since most Federation citizens didn't even care about latinum, and especially a Starfleet officer.

"So, what can i do for you Lt Commander Pendergast?"

"I would like to give you the opportunity of a lifetime, and the chance of commanding a starship on your first offical mission, without years of waiting."

"Are you kidding me?" Danar said with disbelief in his voice.

"No, not all, i'm being dead serious. Starfleet and Legate Evek are busy with preparing a mission to the outskirts of chartered space for a mission of some importance. Legate Evek felt that he owed you a favour, as you have been the one who retrieved the data rod for us."

Danar didn't believe what he was hearing. Legate Evek, a legend among the military, believed he, Glinn Jasen Danar, owed him a favor?. But Danar was sceptical about the prospect of having a command of a starship, especially when Starfleet was involved.

Pendergast continued his talk, and took out a PADD from a inner pocket.

"If you agree, you will be taken directly to the Cardassia shipyards where you will be briefed on the mission, and will meet the people who will be going with you, and your new crew. Legate Evek will also be there, to give you special orders."

Pendergast's head turned to the streets, but his eyes kept piercing Danar's.

"But..if you reject, i will bother you no longer, and you can go to your, currently in ruin, appartment, and serve on a Hideki patrolling the Badlands for six months, and than mabye getting a post on a Galor. With some luck, you will be a XO before you reach forty.."

Pendergast's comment about Danar's future was painfully true, and Danar knew it. Especially with the whole mess and the Ivorian Order involved, Danar would only get a command of a respectable ship when his hair was grey. He sighed, and thought that whatever mission Pendergast and Legate Evek were going give him, it'll beat being captain of a cargo freighter.

"Okay, you got me, I agree."

"Excellent choice. Now, if you are so kind to follow me to my car, we will be on our way."

"Okay, off to the Alkeen space port than.."

"No, we will not be heading to the spaceport, we will go straight directly to the spacedocks inmediatly."

Pendergast opened the door of the Wraith Arrow, and waited for Danar to get in. This is ridiclous, Danar thought. That human must be joking or something.

"I know what you are thinking Mr Danar, but i assure you that i'm am not "kidding" you or any other form of fooling you. Please, get in."

After Danar entered the antique hover car, he noticed that while the exterior was outdated, the interior was one of the most modern he ever saw and resembled that of a shuttlecraft. There were consoles, with buttons that Danar recognized as controls for sensor, thrusters..and phasers?. Pendergast tapped on the console in front of him, and the doors began to magnetically lock themselves. Pendergast tapped a few more, and the engines came online and the Wraith Arrow began to hover above the ground.

"I must warn you Mr Danar, this may be..disconcerning."

"Why's that?"

The hover car suddenly moved with a speed that would be impossible for any car of anykind to achieve..and going upwards. The Wraith Arrow was above street level in seconds, quickly followed by the rooftops, and finally the skyscrapers and several seconds reaching a altitude of 8 miles into the air. Danar's heart was beating like a maniac, while Pendergast totally undisturbed was reading a PADD. The Wraith Arrow climbed higher and higher, and than it reached the amothsphere, and few minutes later the Wraith Arrow was in space itself.

"What the...How the.."

"A friend of mine reconverted this hovercar into a spaceflight capable vechicle, and it's very handy since i detest using transporters."

"Why?"

"I prefer to not to be disasembled into energy and reconstructed again, i would feel like a copy of my old self. Like a old Andorian philosefer once said,"I rather be a man who saw few, than no man who saw many.",So in other words, i just prefer using shuttles or my personal car."

After few minutes of flight, and Danar's discovery that the hovercar was capable of reaching half the impulse of a normal starship, the Wraith Arrow reached the shipyards in the Cardassia system, located at Cardassia Prime's moon.

The shipyards were half-destroyed during the war, and it took nearly four years to rebuild them, as infrastructure took priority first. Three new Galors and 8 Hidekis were in the making, as none were further allowed by the treaty that was established at the ending of the Dominion War. After passing two Galors who were waiting for their reparations were completed, the Wraith Arrow was nearing the central hub of the shipyards, a large round structure with six big pylons sticking out.

Pendergast carefully, but still with great speed, piloted the hover car-shuttle to a shuttle bay in the lower section. After going to the magnetic field, the Wraith Arrow softly landed on one of the parking spaces. After stepping out the hover car, Danar saw a officer coming through the main door, and towards him and Pendergast. Danar wasn't sure what for rank the man had, but when he drew closer, he saw the insignia of Legate on the officer's chest.

Danar inmediatly jumped to attention, and hold his back right and saluted. When the legate was almost with them, Danar saw it was Legate Evek himself, and he was smiling.

"At ease, Gil First Class Danar. No need for proper conduct of behaving for a superior officer."

Danar nervously stood at ease, and finally realized that this mission could be very important, to have a legate to be friendly to a low-ranking officer. Legate Evek reached out his hand, and Danar slowly grabbed and shook it.

"Welcome onboard, Gil Danar, or should i say, Glinn Danar. I will take you to your quarters, where you can rest before we begin the briefing. Make sure you rest well, because what we are about to tell you, might be overwhelming for a officer on his first mission."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**The Raven Nest, Farius Prime**

The Raven Nest was a ebony-coloured skyscraper in the capital of the industrial world Farius Prime. It served as a conference center for people who are normally don't go to the main regular conferences like on Risa, Vulcan or Earth. The Raven Nest was for people who were busy with criminal, illegal and covert military activties, or even more sinister things..

The meetings that usually took place in the Raven Nest were sometimes by drug emperors who discussed narcotic distributions, or terrorists who planned their next attack on a goverment target on their homeworlds or even intergalatic conquest.

The special VIP conference chamber, reserved for the elite, was at the top the building. The chamber itself was a large dim-lited room, with in the middle a table with eight seats. The persons who sat in them were obscured from sight by the darkness, and only their hands were illuminated by a dim light in the center of the table. For the people present, it was the sixth time in eight years that they met, as the security risks were unbelievably high and if anyone found out about this meeting, their plans would fall into ruin, not to mention the death penalty for all of them.

The one who starts the meeting, was also the one who brought them alltogether, eight years ago, and when he spoke, he spoke with a deep and commanding voice.

"I regret to inform you all that our operatives have failed to capture Berim Ressil, and obtain the data-rod which he was carrying. According to my sources, the Cardassians have consificated the data-rod, and have informed Starfleet."

"WHAT!" a loud and rugged voice shouted "Do you realise what this meanssss to our planssss!"

"Slessshh has a point, because if they find the Eternity Project, they'll find out about Infinity aswell." a more calm, and more refined but still booming voice said.

"So,Harad?" a other spoke, with the voice electronically masked by a breathing mask "By the time they figure it out, their precious fleets will be long gone in Borg space,"

".And without the ability to protect their worlds too,Pran " a similair masked voice said, but with a much higher-pitched tune.

"And i believe you all have to thank ME, for that special service wich will give us half the galaxy in our lapse." cackeld a also high-pitche voice, but that came more propably more from insanity, than physically.

They all looked in the direction of the shades of the man who's involvement was one of the greatest importance, but his mental health was always a great risk, as no one could predict what he could do if angered.

"Yes, we all know that the gate was all thanks to you and your people, Maurtis, but we have to go a long way before we can claim victory." The first one said " We don't need the data-rod, because it is certain that the Cardassians and Starfleet will send a ship to investigate, and when they do find it, we will be standing by to take it from them."

"And how..do you suppose we do it..Revok?" The last of them to speak had a charming and soothing voice, that would be handy in diplomatic missions.

"Well, that's where you come in, Yelgrun. If anyone else attacked them, and they would happen to survive and report it, the game would be over but your men wouldn't attract attention. It's common knowledge that some of their race desterted from their main fleet after the surrender ten years ago and are randomly attacking ships."

"Yes..they are..betrayers of the gods."

"I'm sure they are..but back to the matters at hand. The Cardassians will send a ship very soon, and i want you to have warships ready to follow, and to destroy them at the end when it reaches it's destination."

"Now..does know everyone what to do when Maurtis gives the signal after he completes his task?"

All remained silent, and Revok took that as a yes."Alright, i will see you all in two days from now. You are dismissed."

Several short flashes of light later, and by now Revok was all alone. That was the time that he came out. Suddenly Revok's began to change from colour, and they turned into a fiery red that covered all of it. Revok made a mocking smile and began to laugh.

"Fools, they really think that when we get we wanted, that they will live to see another day? They will alll perish"

The eyes turned normal again, and fear appeared on the face of Revok.

"B-but when that time comes, you'll make me one of your own, like you promised."

The demonic appearance returned, and now Revok looked a bit annoyed.

"Yes, yes. But remember, it was i who stopped you from being a coward, and take action back to the people who betrayed you, preventing you from becoming their rightful leader. Soon, if everything goes according to plan, they will all burn for their insolence."

The "normal" Revok returned, and his heart beated fast, and cold sweat poured down his ridged back.

"W-whatever you say, Dukat."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Cardassia Shipyards, Cardassia System**

After been escorted by Legate Evek to his quarters, Danar took off his dirty,ragged and dried blood-stained clothes and took a short sonic shower to wash off the dirt and sweat. After that, Danar slumped down on the reasonbly comfortable bed, and just before he fell to sleep, he thought about what a crazy day it has been and that there only have been 4 hours since the fight with the assasins and death of the old man. Danar wondered what tommorow would bring..

About seven hours later, Danar was awoken by the chimming of his doorbell and with much chagrin Danar stepped out of his bed and walked to the door and shouted "YES, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!"...before he realized he still wasn't dressed, and that it was a young female crewman who was at the door.

The crewman showed him a blank face, seemingly not noticing that he was fully nude, and only saluted and said "Legate Evek is expecting you in the Briefing room in Ops, sir."

"Uuuh, yes alright...uh tell Legate Evek that i'll be there in a few minutes because i need to get...dressed."

Danar closed the door quickly, but could still hear a faint feminish giggle behind it. While his cheeks were becoming red from embarrasment, he quickly putted on a fresh new uniform and opended the door again. The female gil was still standing there with a neutral expression. She saluted Danar, who now had a glinn rank on his chest section and gestured him to follow.

They walked to various corridors and hallways, and Danar could make a good look of the new Galor's who were being constructed. According to some rumours, the new Galors and Hidekis would be outfitted with down-graded Federation technology like Holodecks and phaser arrays, so that even without all of the real heavy tech like Ablative armour or Transphasic torpedoes, a new Galor could easily take on two post-Dominion war Galors.

When they finally reached a turbolift that wórked, they reached Ops that was located in the centre of the station. After entering the command center for the shipyard, the female crewman pointed to a door on the left, and than went off to preform other duties. Danar watched the crewman until she was out of sight, and thought there were worser days to start als a commanding officer. Danar walked to the door, and entered while the door chimned open.

In the briefingroom, the seats of the table in the center were occupied by several Cardassians, and one Human, Lt Commander Pendergast. Legate Evek was also present, sitting at the head of the table.

"Welcome Glinn Danar, please take a seat and than i will introduce you to the others."

Danar took a seat, and Evek started to introduce the people next and opposite to him. Evek first pointed towards the man next to Danar.

"This is Gil Vornar, he will be the chief engineer on the ship. He previously worked at the Kelvas repair facility."

Danar nodded to Vornar, and Evek continued with a man opposite of Danar.

"And this is Gil Toran, he will be the tactical officer."

Danar had heard of Gul Toran, a Cardassian war hero who was killed at Chin'toka, so that meant this was his son and Danar nodded to him aswell.

Evek now pointed to the last Cardassian sitting on the table, a female.

"And finally this is Glinn Belor, she will be the chief medical officer onboard. And i think you already know Lt Commander Pendergast from Starfleet, who will serve as your first officer on this mission."

What the hell, Danar thought. A Starfleet Lt Commander under a Cardassian Glinn? Before he could ask what the deal about this, the door of the briefing room chimned open, and a Romulan female officer entered the room. She had the normal soup-bowl haircut that was common for Romulans and Vulcans, but her forehead ridges were not as prominent as with most Romulans that Danar has seen, and remarkably she seemed reasonable attractive..for a alien.

"Ah, welcome Lieutenant Serena. You just missed the introduction, but i think we can do it another time. This is Centurion Serena of the Romulan Imperial Fleet, she will be acting as a temporary Chief Science onboard the ship until completion. The reason for her presence will be explained soon."

Serena took a seat at the conference table, and Danar became even more confused. A Human and a Romulan serving under him? What kind of a mission is this? Meanwhile Evek got up from his seat and activated the viewscreen, that showed a map of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Evek walked towards the screen, and began his briefing.

"For several years now, officials in the Cardassian goverment and military have been aware of persistent rumours of a secret facility that contained a powerful weapon, that dissapeared during a testing run in the last year of the Dominion War. Starfleet had also heard some rumours about it and determined it important to investigate it's existence. Although details were sketchy, it was believed to be located somewhere at the edge of explored space. Also, the only people who would know it's location were two Cardassians. One of them is the legendary war hero Legate Damar who, as everyone knows, at the end of the war. The other was a former Obsidian Order operative, under the name of Berim Ressil."

Evek touched a section of the viewscreen, and a picture along with basic information like birthdate and gender appeared.

"No way.." Danar recongized the man on the picture, it was the old man in the appartment who bled to death and had the datarod with him. Meanwhile Evek continued the briefing and a new picture of a blood-stained data-rod appeared.

"Unfortunatly, agents of a unknown organization had found Mr Ressil before we did, and mortally wounded him. Luckily, Ressil encountered Glinn Danar at his appartment before he died, and gave him a data-rod, who after a full inspection, was discovered to have the location of the secret facility."

Evek pressed a other section on the viewscreen, and a map of the Beta Quadrant appeared, and inmediatly zoomed in on a spot near the northeren part of the Romulan border. The map came at the stop by a star system, just over the Romulan border.

"As you can see, the location is in Romulan space, but in a sector that has been widely unchartered by the Romulans, as it does not posses valuable resources, inhabitable planets or any strategic value. But we still need Romulan permission to go to the system, and Centurion Serena will be accompying us to make sure we don't do anything illegal. Lieutenant Commander Pendergast will be super-vising the mission in name of Starfleet and the Federation. Because of the ship-building treaty still being active, whatever what may be found in the facility shall be handed over to Starfleet, for a full inspection of capablities and abilities and than it shall be decided it will be given back to our goverment."

Evek deactivated the viewscreen with another press, and than returned to his seat at the head of the table and continued his speach there.

"Because of the massive ship-shortage by both Starfleet and the Romulans, it has been decided that a Cardassian ship shall investigate the matter, although with super-vision from Serena and Pendergast as i have told you before. The ship that will be used is the Mavek, the first new Hideki that was built as a prototype for the technology upgrades that Starfleet had given us. Glinn Danar will be in command of the ship, although Pendergast has the right to take command. But until than, he will serve as Danar's executive officer while Centurion Serena will be doing Science. Gil Vornar will be Chief Engineer, and Toran and Belar will be respectivly, Tactical and Medical."

Evek, who seemed to be never standing still, got again up from his seat and gestured for the others to do aswell.

"The Mavek will leave port in eight hours, as time is essential at this point. You should prepare yourselfs for the worst because it will be a long journey, with no idea what's ahead of you. Please take a rest or sort out personal matters before departure. And also remember that because of a low number of friendly patrol ships due to the coming invasion of the Delta Quadrant, you will be quite alone, and there have been reports of Jem'hadar renegades in the local area. Now, your all dismissed."

Everyone at the table got up and left the briefing room, expect for Danar who hastily went after Evek.

"Excuse me legate, but i would like to ask you something."

"Sure glinn, go ahead."

"...Why me sir? I mean i just graduated from the academy, and i have no real expierence of commanding a starship, and i wondered why i was given this mission?"

"Because i felt we owed you something after the hazardous things you had to do to save your own life and to obtain the data-rod. That, and the fact i knew your father well, and have followed your training on the academy. I know when i see a very promising officer, and you are indeed promising."

Evek had walked towards his office in Ops, and at the door he said one last thing to Danar.

"Be careful, Jasen. The people who killed Berim and tried to kill you will not stop at nonething to get to capture Eternity for themselves, and will see you as a danger to their plans. And remember that this mission is of the utmost importance for the Cardassian people. We will have a part of our old pride back if the mission is a succes, and possibly a new instrument for keeping the peace in the Alpha Quadrant. I'm counting on you Danar."

And with that said, Evek went into his office, and left Danar standing in front of it, suddenly feeling a heavy weight on his shoulders.


End file.
